// Content warning: Foul/Colorful Language
Better late than never! I ended up falling off of gemini last year so I never got around to compiling this list but I didn't stop the data gathering!
If you hadn't read my previous post for 2020 I'll share the link at the bottom!
The winner was "Bell Witch, Aerial Ruin - Stygian Bough Volume I"
The criteria:
And the albums are...
2021's playlist:
=> [spotify] senders' Releases 2021 Playlist
If you haven't please definetly check these out. I regret not writing this at the top of the year. I am welling up just looking at how good last year was for music. I own a decent chunk of these on vinyl too. And so many release from my favorite artists.
In alphabetical order:
I can't just leave it at a top 5 - some of my favorite albums are on this list - it's SO STRONG.
Blackwater Holylight - an all female "Stoner/Doom Metal/Psychedelic Rock" band that is just - mmm! This release's production is top notch and just presents a fantastic doomy atmosphere. In a genre built on top of tropes this felt VERY fresh.
Empyrium - A fantastic German "Symphonic Folk/Doom Metal, Neofolk" band that I found in 2021 and got hooked. While the album didn't make my top 5 (likely due to it being a long and intense listen) - The Oaken Throne was in my top played songs of the year. It's fantastic! Check them out if you like folk metal.
Khemmis - More traditionally "Doom Metal", these guys just pump out massive and metal fucking tracks. It's the only way you can phrase it. Mixing beautiful clean vocals with some harsher screams - they deliver on the metal. More up-tempo than other Doom artists but lyrically and tonally they're certainly Doom. I've been a fan of Khemmis for a few years now and am working my way to owning their entire discography. This album is actually one of my favorites of theirs, just stiff competition this year.
Spaceslug - Another "Stoner/Doom Metal" band. Memorial, a mid-december entry, just making the list. Spaceslug have always stood out among their contemporaries due to how they layer their vocals on top of just massive and flowing guitars. Follow This Land (track 2) sums up their sound to me and was easily on repeat after release. You just close your eyes, let the metal envelope you, and tap along. Solid.
Starcadian - The latest album of ear movies by this "retrowave" artist. Starcadian is such a unique fixture in the retrowave space and labeling them as such feel reductive? They make ear movies (as they say) and it's really the BEST way to describe their sound. This album while very solid, wasn't my favorite of theirs. Starcadian also just missed out in last years list. Like Khemmis, any other year this would've easily made the top 5.
I go on a bit more on Starcadian and share some of my favorite tracks in my Awesome EPs Music Spotlight (linked below).
Tissues ready? Emotionally available to feel regret, pain, sorrow?
This album is haunting. That is really the only way to describe it...
Emma Ruth Rundle is a singer-songwriter whose genre is a doomy-dreaful-posty-folk? Like Starcadian - reducing her to single genre would be doing a disservice to the raw emotion her sound evokes.
Engine of Hell is perhaps her most raw. You could find some ... poppy? ... maybe mainstream (for the genres) sound. Like when you write a song and say "that's a single". None of that is here. It's 100% just emotion.
Any and all I could try to say is summed up in this quote from her website on the albums page:
Emma Ruth Rundle’s forthcoming Engine of Hell is stark, intimate, and unflinching. For anyone that’s endured trauma and grief, there’s a beautiful solace in hearing Rundle articulate and humanize that particular type of pain not only with her words, but with her particular mysterious language of melody and timbre. The album captures a moment where a masterful songwriter strips away all flourishes and embellishments in order to make every note and word hit with maximum impact, leaving little to hide behind.In essence, Engine of Hell signifies a major turning point for Rundle as both an artist and as a person.
Kerrang did an interview where she talks about rehabilitation and how that lead to this album - for some additional context:
=> https://www.kerrang.com/hell-and-back-how-emma-ruth-rundle-saved-herself
Turn off your lights, crank your hi-fi, close your eyes, and listen.
To be decided... Likely Return? This is way too hard... It's like picking favorite painful experience.
Legit, I don't think I can overstate how this album will captivate you and you'll be left just... raw.
=> [spotify] Emma Ruth Rundle - Engine of Hell
(I had to literally take a break after writing the previous album write-up)
Her third full length album, KANGA comes at us with another industrial darkpop banger!
It's March 2019, I go to the Williamsburg Music Hall in Brooklyn, New York to see The Black Queen, Greg Puciato's (The Dillinger Escape Plan) latest group. I ended up having to go alone despite buying 2 tickets because my partner wasn't feeling well (it's okay the tickets were only $20/each). I am standing in the corner of the hall and this woman rushes past me to the stage and goes behind the curtain. It startled me because the hall was mostly empty still. KANGA this artist I had never heard of opens to a, still, mostly empty hall. A solo performer, she is on stage with just a few synths, a laptop, and a mic.
And she stole the fucking show.
Fueling this Nine in Nails inspired industrial dance party, she got the entire floor moving. Her self titled debut made up the entire set list. I was with the group dancing (mostly to myself, but still) for the entire set. The Black Queen was okay. Greg is a great vocalist but yeah.. they did fine.
Oh? You and I Will Never Die? Yeah, it's a fucking bop from back to front. I can't keep from dancing in my seat as I listen during the day, work, whenever. Still today, in 2022, I throw this on as a "I need something to listen to" album.
The composition and production is phenomenal. The fact that the chorus of the lead single, Moscow, is an industrial breakdown is just... and the throbbing resonance of the bass in Violence, each track offers something unique from the rest while still providing a cohesive sound.
I felt telling the story of how discovered KANGA best summed up how I felt about her music, and this album. It's unforgettable and captivating. She delivers, hard, on this album.
Home, I can't keep from moving.
👀 Not for that reason!! But I feel like the album art really delivers the attitude and mood of the album. The font, the stark colors, invokes this like exploitive and art feel of some underground artist... I don't know it just fits so well
=> [spotify] KANGA - You and I Will Never Die
I first brought up MØL in my Awesome EPs gemlog (below), they're a "Blackgaze" metal band hailing from Denmark. Like a less depressing Alcest, and that's saying something - the sadness echoes through these tracks.
I am not really well versed in Black metal as a genre and I can hear this group leans harder into the gaze side of their genre.
This album, when comparing it against their previous full length is just way better produced. Everything in the mix is punchy and crisp. Which really is saying something given how good Jord sounded.
Taking a track like Redacted, which just hits you with a wall of post-metal, gazey guitars over black metal harsh screams - and it's all so clear.
Like a lot of the other albums on this list. Once this album starts its REALLY hard to press pause. Every song brings its own energy while carrying the groove and quality through.
Serf, hands down. It throws so hard at you.
Runner up for album art - this clocks in at 46:02 minutes. Close competition with "You and I Will Never Die" AND "raised by swans is the name of a man, volume 1" at 44:47, "Engine of Hell" at 40:49, and "Distant Populations" all the way down at 32:33.
I saw Quicksand with Glassjaw in an amazing concert in 2018 at Brooklyn Steel - talk about a killer line-up! I am also a huge fan of their frontman Walter Schreifels' Rival Schools project, whose United by Fate is one of my favorite albums of ALL TIME - and this album reminded me a lot of from how the songs were composed.
This album is some just hardcore post hardcore too it's teeth. They brought back that raw intense energy that albums like Slip and Manic Compression had and I felt Interiors lacked. That's not to say Quicksand was always arms out hardcore, they've always had a softer and mellow/musical balance to them. And as a band ages it's expected to soften their sound as they loose their younger angst. But when you throw this record on and Inversion just kicks your fucking door down and starts moshing, you can't help but thrash along.
That being said Brushed and Phase 90 provide that creative, unique sound that Quicksand is great at capturing and they really brought in Interiors - which helps break up the album in a nice way.
And in their typical post-hardcore fashion, each song is quick to the point and killer - with the longest track being 3:35. (Brushed, and Phase 90 at 1 second less - are the two different tracks and the two longest by 30-45s over most others - which can hurt the flow if you want something heavier).
Inversion is hands down the best track on the album. You can't top something that fucking in your face. That tom fill to just slam into the start is just \m/ fuck yeah.
At first I was a bit off put with the creative direction of this album. But over time I've really grown to love it.
=> [spotify] Quicksand - Distant Populations
It is! Raised by Swans is a Canadian singer/songwriter with a 20ish year career making beautiful indie/rock music.
If it weren't for Engine of Hell, this would be the tear jerker of the list.
Eric Howden, the actual name of the man, has a beautiful and powerful voice that peaks into a falsetto that tugs at your heart. You can hear from his performances that he pours his whole self into his music.
This album sprinkles in some electronic production along side the classic guitar effects and vocals. But this album is understated and difficult to write about. It almost feels disrespectful. You'll just have to check it out.
I was fortunate to see Raised by Swans perform a virtual concert via their bandcamp. Alone with an old grand piano and telecaster he put on an intimate performance. Despite being virtual you felt like you were sitting on the floor in front of the small stage, listening to him open his heart to us. And this entire album, and his whole personal, feels this way. All of the adjectives I've thrown out so far perfectly encapsulate this album. It's a personal peek into a mans soul.
fortress without doors - haunting. beautiful.
You'd be surprised this ISN'T an emo album (well, not a scene era emo album).
=> [bandcamp] Raised by Swans - raised by swans is the name of a man, volume 1
Okay, so this has been HARD. I've been thinking about it for the better part of the year. Towards the end of 2021, after Spotify had released their Wrapped campaign - a musicians discord group I am apart of started discussing their favorite albums - and even then, when these albums were fresh in my ear, I wasn't sure.
I am forever biased by the fact that it's a year later and I've had time to spend with these albums.
What is more difficult is out of these top 5 4 of them are releasing new music this year.
Emma Ruth Rundle released EG2: Dowsing Voice
=> [bandcamp] Emma Ruth Rundle - EG2: Dowsing Voice
KANGA released a new single "Magnolia"
=> [bandcamp] KANGA - Magnolia (Single)
Raised by Swans is in the process of dropping singles from the upcoming volume 2:
=> [bandcamp] Raised by Swans (Bandcamp digital landing page)
and MØL just released the instrumental version of Diorama:
=> [bandcamp] MØL - Diorama (Instrumental)
Sadly, Raised by Swans' volume 2 will release in 2023, and KANGA's single likely isn't apart of a 2022 release. So it won't be a back to back repeated top 5 lol. And it's been a pretty good year, so we'll see if there is any overlap next year.
But that being said... without further ado:
This was a heartbreakingly difficult choice to make. I am honestly tearing up because Raised by Swans and Emma Ruth Rundle put on an amazingly strong showing. Each of their albums envokes such strong feelings of sadness, loss, and longing. I guess I needed something happier this year. I don't think KANGA's album has left my top played for the longest time. And even back in that thread about top album of the year on discord I had to go with KANGA.
Ironically, the admin of that discord went with Engine of Hell, so in a way they both won!
So congrats KANGA. But really congrats everyone who made it onto this list. Every single album here is worth listening to.
That is a HARD question. I've kept a playlist of all of my favorite artists new releases each year. And a good deal of them have actually released an album this year. I think off of repeat listens alone KANGA's - You and I will Never Die [...] but there are a few Q4 releases like Møl's Diorama and Starcadian's Radio Galaxy that haven't had the chance to worm fully into my ears
I remembered havingt this convo but only checked after writing this to realize I had already picked out my top 5.
I was hoping through writing this I would maybe give the more difficult to just "throw on" albums a stronger fight - but You and I Will Never Die really just eeked out - and I couldn't help but continue to come back to it.
I look forward to next years article.
=> [spotify] senders' Releases 2022 Playlist
=> Music Spotlight: Top Album 2020 | Music Spotlight: A Song of Cheese and Hammer | Music Spotlight: Awesome EPs (again lol)
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